Hospital Day 6

It's absolutely amazing summer temperatures outside right now...can't wait to enjoy a weekend outside as a family. Brad is doing duty at the hospital tonight and I am at home trying to get the house sorted out, laundry done and spend time with Kailyn & Joshua. Feels so lonely to be here without Noah, but it is a much needed break from the stress of the hospital. Noah is doing much better...sitting up, playing and finally handing out those precious smiles once again. And most importantly, no more fevers, no more oxygen required and his potassium is beginning to straighten itself out. So it looks as if we should be able to hang on to this line. His ESR rate is still high though, which signals inflammation somewhere in the body. We will repeat it tomorrow to make sure that it is trending down. He is still in isolation, but hopefully he will be released from his room this week and at least be able to go down to the playroom.

Nephrology was consulted yesterday in regards to why Noah had this very scary potassium problem. Below 2.5 is severe hypokalemia. Noah's lowest level was 1.8, a level low enough to easily have put him into cardiac arrest or lung paralysis. The nephrologist is fairly convinced that it all stems back to when Noah was on Ampho B (an antifungal that is particularly hard on the kidneys). He likely has a tubular disorder from this that may last for months or perhaps years. This usually wouldn't give him any major issues, except that he was overloaded with sodium in the ER when the fluid bolus mistake occured. His kidneys couldn't handle it normally and it put him in this hypokalemic state. It was a very unfortunate error, but thankfully after multiple potassium boluses, his body is finally correcting itself. Noah will have a kidney ultrasound done after the weekend to make sure there is nothing else going on.

Once again, thank you for all the prayers, meals and visits. Please continue to pray for healing and endless amounts of patience.